What happens at the polls on November 8, 2016 in the U.S.
presidential election simply does not matter.

It’s not unimportant because balloting itself will be tampered
with, which is how the media spin it when Donald Trump says the
election is rigged.

Uh-uh. The fix is in for the popular voting because both the major
political parties and the free press necessary for anything
approaching “honest” elections have been corrupted, not allowing for a
fair process—for example, not including Libertarian Gary
Johnson, a candidate on all 50 state ballots, in the crucial televised
debates.

At this moment the media are focused on making the October 18, 2016
final presidential debate mostly about Donald Trump’s sex life.

The major media ignore all the Wikileaks documents from Hillary
Clinton and her supporters, just as the Obama/Lynch Justice Department
earlier directed the FBI to do.

The Clinton campaign—in coordination with major
media—accuse Donald Trump of being paranoid when he talks about
their obvious coordination while, simultaneously, Hillary and her
supporters talking about Trump conspiring with Putin sound like Robert
Welch of the John Birch Society accusing President Dwight Eisenhower
of being a Russian stooge.

In a coordinated attack designed to bury Hillary-damaging Wikileaks
the major media are obsessing over the endless Clinton-supporters
claiming Trump molested them. Liberal/feminist attorney Gloria Allred
getting involved is a clear indicator of the set-up.

Then consider the episode of NBC’s
Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit Season 18, Episode 6: “Rape
Interrupted,” scheduled to air Nov 2, 2016—six days before the
election. Here’s IMDb’s description of “Rape Interrupted”: “A
politician’s campaign is jeopardized when several women come forward
with damaging accusations.” Such an episode had to be scripted months
ago. NBC, the network which aired The Apprentice series and
was the employer of Billy Bush, certaintly knew about the Access
Hollywood tape for a very long time.

The coordinated media-smear strategy was simple.

Step One was release of the illegally made Access
Hollywood tape. Unless the recording was made with all parties’
explicit consent the taping was illegal under California law. On this
private recording Donald Trump bragged to Billy Bush about what a stud
The Donald thought he was, even as Trump told Bush a story about a
married woman who said no and whom Trump did not have sex with but
whom Trump says he ended up taking furniture shopping.

Step Two was when Anderson Cooper relentlessly asked Trump in
Debate 2—interrupting Trump three times to force an
answer—if any of the braggadocio on the tape was true. Cooper
and his handlers had to know Trump would have no choice but to deny
committing anything that could be spun as sexual assaults.

Then in Step Three major media unleashed what the Clintons
charmingly called “bimbo eruptions” when it was about Bill
Clinton—female accusers.

Nazi Germany’s propaganda master Joseph Goebbels would have been
more subtle.

But here’s the ultimate reason the November 8, 2016 election
doesn’t really matter.

The American people do not elect the President of the United States
the way they elect United States senators, federal, state, and local
representatives, governors, mayors, sheriffs, and dog catchers.

The real and only binding presidential election in 2016 takes place
on December 12th when the Electoral College votes.

The 538 Electors chosen by voters to cast presidential and vice-
presidential ballots in the Electoral College have zero legal
obligation to vote for the candidate they’re theoretically pledged to
vote for. There is no penalty if they don’t.

If somehow, despite the media’s best efforts, Trump’s November
8th popular vote is like the surprise upset of Great Britain’s Brexit
vote and despite media-commissioned polling is greater than Hillary
Clinton’s numbers, then changing the Electoral College electors’
vote will be trumpeted as necessary by all major media.

If the electors selected don’t give Hillary Clinton the 270 pledged
votes she needs to win I have zero doubt that the Democratic/ liberal/
progressive/ Clintonista/ left would encourage electors pledged to
other candidates to come over to them.

Another long-standing American political tradition will be
dead.

Republican Elector Roger MacBride taught us the freedom of the
Elector in 1972 when he broke his pledge to vote for Richard Nixon and
Spiro Agnew, instead casting his electoral ballot for Libertarians
John Hospers and Tonie Nathan.

2012 Electoral College Votes by State

The media is currently so focused on the November 8 balloting
they’ve forgotten the popular vote is not how the United States elects
its president and vice president.

The Electors of the Electoral College pick the president.

Just because electors have traditionally voted as they have
promised in the past means absolutely nothing in the unprecedented
presidential election of 2016.

Every instinct tells me that the only people who have to be
convinced of anything this time are the electors.

And nobody has even polled them.

Note: After reading the above several correspondents
in email and on Facebook have pointed me to articles discussing 34
states that “bind” electors and impose legal penalties (usually fines
maxing out at $1000) for “faithless electors.”

First, most legal scholars conclude such laws are unconstitutional
and unenforceable, Second, not a felony. Those states usually max out
with a $1000 fine—and withdrawing money prematurely from a CD or
prematurely switching to an alternate satellite TV or cell phone
company usually has the new company picking up the penalty. Out of the
538 electors only several might have to go against their state law and
with a 4-4 Supreme Court it’s all politics anyway.

“Indeed, when it comes down to it, electors are ultimately free to
vote for whom they personally prefer, despite the general public’s
desire.”—Fair
Vote—States that Bind Electors

As I wrote in response to an email earlier today:

Party pledges of supporting the party’s nominee were obtained from
all primary candidates including Jeb Bush and John Kasich, both of
whom reneged on supporting nominee Donald Trump with no party penalty.
Such party pledges from electors are likewise meaningless and
unenforceable beyond an elector perhaps not being selected again and
that’s a big, “So what?”

Fines likewise would be paid by the team acquiring the elector’s
vote, just like a new cell phone company offers to pay the remainder
of your contract to your old cell phone company if you switch.

Nullification of a “faithless elector’s” vote? That will be decided
by a 4-4 Supreme Court—that is, left undecided and the vote left
intact.

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